Movie overhaul spans the valley

Construction, renovation expand theater possibilities in Whitefish, Polson, Kalispell

The Daily Inter Lake

A major overhaul of the Flathead's movie theaters should be completed this summer.

That's when Kalispell's new 14-screen theater at the Hutton Ranch Plaza should be open.

Late last year, Whitefish's Mountain Cinema finished revamping two of its four theaters.

And Polson's Showboat Cinema is expected to expand from two screens to four or five screens by spring 2008.

Here is a rundown on how the theater overhauls are unfolding:

Signature Theaters

at Hutton Ranch Plaza,

Kalispell

The 14 screens of this 45,000-square-foot, 2,200-seat theater complex will replace Signature's current Gateway, Strand and Liberty theaters in Kalispell.

Plaza developer Phil Harris expects that the theaters will open in late June or early July.

The company's six-screen complex at Gateway West Mall likely will be converted into a yet-to-be-determined business building. Plans for the one-screen Strand Theater are up in the air.

The strong possibility for the one-screen Liberty Theater is that it might be converted into a theater for live performances, Harris said.

The additional screens at Hutton Ranch Plaza will give the Signature company the ability to show more films, add more daily showtimes (because it will be easier for more than one auditorium to show the same movie, especially if it is a popular blockbuster) and increase the possibility of art films being shown, Harris said.

Mainstream movies are fairly easy for remote cities such as Kalispell to get.

However, the distributors of art films - for example, the Oscar-nominated "The Last King of Scotland" - have a limited number of copies of those movies. Consequently, those distributors send those films to the biggest population centers when they first come out, leaving small towns such as Kalispell out of the running.

After their initial runs, these films are more likely to become available to small-town theaters. By having 14 screens instead of eight, Signature is more likely to juggle its screens to fit in an art film when it becomes available - without having to sacrifice showing a more profitable mainstream film, Harris said.

Harris declined to say how much the new theater complex cost to build.

Signature Theaters is the cornerstone of the roughly $100 million, 46-acre Hutton Ranch Plaza being built between Mountain View Plaza and Flathead Valley Community College.

A 15-storefront retail building, an office building and a restaurant are expected to open in May. Construction of a new Sportsman & Ski Haus is expected to finish in July. A First Interstate Bank branch is expected to open in a few months.

Another cornerstone of the plaza is supposed to be a 115- to-120-room Hilton Homestead Hotel. No date has been set yet to begin building it.

Mountain Cinema, Whitefish

Mountain Cinema finished its overhaul of two of its four auditoriums last October, adding stadium seating to the older rooms.

Mountain Cinema was originally supposed to be a four-plex, but ended up a two-plex when it was built in 1985. The two extra screens were added in 2004 along with two new auditoriums with stadium seating, which is more spacious and banked for easier lines of sight to the screen.

Mountain Cinema's customers quickly noticed the difference between stadium and the older seating. They would ask if a movie was showing in the newer or older auditoriums, making their decisions on that information, said Gary Dupuis, who manages Polson Theater Co., which has movie houses in 11 towns in Montana and Idaho including Polson and Whitefish.

"Comfort was the No. 1 choice for the customers," Dupuis said.

The renovations also increased the seats in the two older auditoriums from 115 each to 160 each. The two 2004 auditoriums have 410 seats between them.

Dupuis declined to say how much the overhaul cost.

Showboat Cinema, Polson

The Showboat has been around since 1950, becoming a twin-screen theater in 1981.

Polson Theater Co. is working on designs to expand the existing 6,250-square-foot building.

Depending on the final layout, that could add two or three screens to the theater while doubling its size, Dupuis said. It will be a few months before that design is locked in, with the company aiming to finish the expansion by the spring of 2008.

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com